Indians Prospect Insider

After four straight wins, the Lake County Captains fell to the Dayton Dragons 8-3 on Sunday afternoon. The Captains held the lead until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Dragons had a five run inning to help seal the victory.

COLUMBUS- There is a popular saying in baseball, “You live and die on the long ball.” In the Columbus Clippers case Sunday, they definitely died by it. Led by seven homeruns, the Indianapolis Indians routed the Clippers in a 13-3 affair on Sunday.

Evan Longoria and Yunel Escobar both hit two-run home runs as the Tampa Bay Rays beat the Cleveland Indians, 11-3. With the win, the Rays won the rubber match of the three-game series, improving their record to 31-25. They are now 2.5 games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East, though they sit in fourth place in the hotly-contested division.

Join Jim Pete and Steve Orbanek for tonight's episode of Cleveland Sports Insiders. Tonight, they'll talk Cavs basketball, and the NBA as a whole, before diving into first round pick discussions. They'll also jump into some Cleveland Indians baseball, and boy...there's plenty there to talk about. Look, it's not scripted, so who knows where this will go. Join us at 9:00!!!

The Akron Aeros fell behind quickly Sunday afternoon as starting pitcher Robert Whitenack once again faltered, starting the team down the road to their 8-1 loss against the Reading Fightin Phils. Akron (26-31) managed to leave FirstEnergy Stadium with a series win, though the team obviously would have liked to sweep Reading (21-33) over the weekend. The team remains six games out of first place after the Erie SeaWolves lost as well Sunday against the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

The first half of the Carolina League season has turned into an observance of players rather than team. While the Muddies have several interesting prospects, none seem to be able to drive in or score enough runs to win ball games. Still, there are several intriguing players, and former top pick Tyler Naquin has been taking center stage. Go fishin' with Jim Pete as he details the Muddies week that was.

As we move into June the Indians are five games over .500 and a half game out of first place, something a lot of Indians fans thought was not possible back in spring training. Tony touches on that, but he also looks at the Indians' struggles in the left-handed relief department and what their options are there, the turnaround of Ubaldo Jimenez, what the Indians do with Lou Marson when he returns, and gives the details on the upcoming MLB Draft.

With no rain or any chance of rain delays in the forecast, the Indians got a much needed victory Saturday afternoon over Tampa Bay, as they shutout the Rays, 5-0. Ubaldo Jimenez (4-3, 4.83 ERA) looked sharp over his eight innings of work, allowing just one of his four hits in the ballgame for extra bases.

The first day of June brought several interesting performances by Cleveland Indians prospects. Lonnie Chisenhall doesn't appear to be all that enthused about being back in the minors, and is trying to do something about it. Cord Phelps is another player that tasted the big leagues in 2013, but seems to be going in another direction. Join Jim Pete for Saturday's ATF to find out about Chis, Phelps, and a whole lot more.

The Columbus Clippers just can’t seem to catch a break these days. After trailing 5-0 early in the game, the Clippers battled back to take a 8-5 lead but could not hold on to it as they collapsed against the Indianapolis Indians 10-9 in extra innings Saturday.

Fishing for Mudcats returns this week in two parts after taking a temporary vacation last week. This morning, Jim Pete takes a look at action from week seven, which was play from the previous week. Francisco Lindor and Cody Anderson rose to the top once again, as the Mudcats showed life for the first time since early April. Join Jim Pete for Part One, and tune in later today for Part Two, looking at this past week's Carolina Mudcat action.

The Cleveland Indians took the field Saturday for game two of their three-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays only a mere 10 hours after game one had concluded. While there may have been concerns that the lack of sleep could have got to players, it certainly did not affect Tribe right-hander Ubaldo Jimenez, who pitched eight shutout innings to lead the Indians to a 5-0 win. While Jimenez provided the pitching, Jason Giambi took care of the offense as he drove in three runs for the Indians. Join the IBI's Nathan Kemp as he provides all the play-by-play from what was arguably Jimenez's best start in his Indians career.

The Cleveland Indians selected the contract of righty reliever Matt Langwell from Triple A Columbus. In conjunction with the Langwell call-up, lefty Scott Barnes was optioned back to Columbus after getting roughed up during Friday night’s/Saturday morning’s rain delayed game.

Zach McAllister has been one of the most important dominoes in a string that have tumbled to make the Indians a legitimate contender. The IBI's Michael Hattery must confess though that until the last few months he never thought Zach was anything more than an innings eating fourth starter. Now he thinks he could be a solid number two starter. He explains in his latest Trend Spotting piece...

After more than four hours of rain delays and just one hit, there really is not too much that can be said about the Indians' 9-2 loss to the Rays Friday. Once again, the team's left-handed relief options failed them, and the contest quickly became a forgettable one. Join the IBI's Jake Dungan as he looks back on the rough night and offers his Second Thoughts and some key takeaways.

Available IBI Books

The 2014 Cleveland Indians Baseball Insider book featuring the Indians' Top 100 Prospects and more is now available. Also, previous editions from 2008-2012 are also available at a discounted rate. Just click on the book image for more information. Thanks again for all the support!